Kraken Rising: Alex Hunter 6 (31 page)

They needed to be further …

The scream jerked his head around. He saw Shenjung and Soong engaged in a tug of war. One of the tentacles had stretched out, rope thin now, and the tip had snagged Shenjung’s sleeve. While Alex watched the coils started to wrap around his forearm and then thicken. Shenjung dug his heels in, his eyes wider than seemed humanly possible. Soong held on to him, but already his feet began to slip.

Alex had seconds. When the hooks in the tentacles engaged, then the man would be jerked from the cave like a cork from a bottle. Alex sprinted and dived, grabbing Shenjung around the waist. But the tentacle didn’t break or release its grip, instead it simply stretched. Alex turned and gripped the now wrist-thick limb and yanked hard – too easily it released the Chinese scientist, but then like a writhing viper, the thing whipped back to coil around Alex’s arm.

Alex pushed the Chinese couple away, and then used his enormous strength to pull back. The elasticized flesh refused to break. There came a burning pain as the suckers engaged, and then the first sensation of sharpness.

Aimee ran towards him, but he held up a hand. “
Get back!
”

Alex drew a small knife and hacked at the limb but when he pressed down, the flesh would give a bit, and not allow the blade to bite. He felt the thing began to pull at him; he needed to brace himself, and he turned and tried to walk back further into the cave. Each step was impossibly hard, and the thing simply brought more and more power to bear on him, canceling out his effort. He knew it had been playing with him. The force on his arm increased, and he began to slide backwards. The tusk began to dig through his cave suit. The game was obviously over.

Then a sharp pain ripped through Alex’s head, and suddenly the pressure on his arm was gone. He brought his hands up to his ears, grimacing.

Aimee was beside him in a second. “What is it?”

“Something … a sound.” Alex moaned. It felt like an icepick being jammed into the center of his brain. He went to his knees, and then buried his forehead to the ground, groaning.

Aimee followed him down. She looked up, then around. “I can’t hear anything.”

“Ultrasonic.” He lifted his head, his eyes streaming, and blood at his nostrils. Behind him the questing tentacles had begun to quickly withdraw.

After another few seconds they were gone, the sound shut off, and with it went the pain. Alex eased back up, and took his hands away, blinking.

“The sound, it’s gone.” He looked around. “And so is the creature.”

Aimee helped him to his feet. “This is no ordinary cave.” She turned. “And maybe whatever that sound was, scared the orthocone away.”  

“Maybe.” Alex looked down at his arm. There was a ring cut from the tough material of his suit, and his skin was raised and raw. He lifted his head. “And maybe it just knows another way in.”

Aimee let go of Alex and looked up at his face. He hadn’t changed. He had the same brutally handsome features, the same eyes that saw deep inside her. He returned the gaze, his expression suddenly hardening.

“You shouldn’t damn well be here,” he said.

Her mouth momentarily dropped open. “You’re right, I shouldn’t.” She folded her arms, her jaw set. “And neither should you. After all you’re dead, remember?” She pushed him hard in the chest. “Or at least that’s what you wanted
me
to think.”

“That wasn’t in my control.” Alex rounded on her. “You have bigger priorities than this.”  He waved an arm around. “Or me.”

“You dare …” Her teeth clamped. “You have no idea what I have done to be here.”

He leaned towards her, lowering his voice. “You left Joshua unguarded. That’s what you’ve done.”

She felt the anger boil over. “
I
left Joshua?
You
goddamn left us both.” She couldn’t help her voice rising, and could feel the stares of the group. “You left us both, when we needed you most.”

“No, I didn’t.” Alex pulled back. “And you had
someone.”

He knew
, she thought.
How?
Aimee tilted her head, stepping in closer. “You’ve been watching us … or did that Jack Hammerson run tabs on me and keep you in the loop?”

He began to turn away, but she grabbed his arm and tugged him around. “Peter looked after us when I needed support. He was a father figure to Joshua, but never his true father. Where were you?” She stepped right up to him. “
Where were you?”

Alex put a hand out and eased her back a step. “You should have married him. Joshua needs that permanency … so do you.”

That was it.
Aimee swung at him. “You son of a bitch.”

The blow caught Alex on the shoulder and bounced off. Aimee felt her hand throb with pain, but her anger wouldn’t subside. She wanted to hit him again, hurt him.

“Yo.” Casey Franks sauntered over, followed by Rhino and Blake. “What kept you, boss?” Her bloodied face was pulled up into its usual sneer. Her eyes went from Aimee to Alex, as she stepped in between them.

Alex shrugged, looking relieved at the distraction. “A mile or so of ice and rock, a sea serpent or two, miles of jungle.” He smiled flatly. “The usual.” Alex held out a fist to her.

“All in a day’s work.” Casey bumped knuckles. “Good to see you.”

Alex did the same to his other HAWCs, who grinned like they’d just been given a reprieve from death row. He looked down again at the HAWC woman’s battered face. “How you doing?”

Casey grinned back. “Me? Fine, I was ugly to start with.”

Rhino put a large hand and on her shoulder. “But it’s what’s inside that counts, right, Franks?”

Alex laughed. “For most people.” He nodded towards the group standing in the dark. “Let’s see what we’ve got.” He took a few paces towards them, but paused to look back at Aimee.

“We’ll finish this later.”

You bet we will
, she thought.

*

“Come forward,” Alex said, his voice echoing in the smaller cavern.

All eyes shifted from Alex to Captain Wu Yang. He and his remaining men stayed in the shadows. Around them the cavern was heavily overgrown with hanging lichen and mosses, things that had grown over many millennia to obscure walls that seemed unnaturally flat. Beneath their feet a layer of dirt couldn’t conceal ancient tiles. Unlike most of the caves leading down, this one smelled damp, earthen, and of something Alex could only just detect – the hint of metal rusting somewhere far away in the dark.

“Now,” Alex said.

Captain Wu Yang was the first to step from the shadows, his gaze unflinching. Alex noticed his gun was still in his holster. He had two remaining soldiers with him. The captain squared his shoulders and folded his arms. There would be no apology from this man, nor would Alex have expected one. As far as he was concerned, he was just doing the job ordered by his country.

Yang made no move for his gun, but his soldiers still had their rifles cradled. Alex’s team now had no armaments, other than knives.

“Lower your weapons.” Alex had his HAWCs spread to either side of him, and he could feel the waves of fury radiating from them. The power imbalance would not be tolerated for long.

Yang didn’t flinch, and his men didn’t move. Alex knew they understood him.

“Hey assholes, you heard the man.” Casey walked forward, eyes blazing. She looked like she wanted to settle a few scores right here, right now.

Alex grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. He turned again to Yang. “Lower them or I’ll take them from you.” He stared from under lowered brows. “And I
will
hurt you.” Alex looked over his shoulder to the cave entrance. “Then I think I’ll throw you all outside to play with our new friend.”

Yang’s eyes remained fixed on Alex, but he could almost hear his mind ticking over, perhaps remembering what he had seen this new American soldier do to his giant, Mungoi. He turned and spoke a few words. His men didn’t hesitate to comply; they placed their weapons on the ground – rifles, handguns, and knives.

Alex looked each of them in the eyes. “If you want to live, you will take orders from me.” He waited until there came a near imperceptible nod from Wu Yang.

Alex continued to hold the man’s gaze. “Now, I’ll take the grenades.”

The soldiers looked to Yang who frowned and shrugged.

Alex chuckled, but with zero humor. “I know PLA each have a Type-86 grenade. They’re minifrags full of nice ballbearings and with a wide burst radius. Hand them over, now.” Alex curled his fingers. “Quickly.”  He tilted his head, seeing the walkie talkies on their belts. “And take those off … I’ll have them as well.”

“Who are you?” Yang asked.

“The Arcadian.” Casey smile-sneered at the Chinese captain. “And unless you want your head ripped off, I’d do as he says.”

“Arcadian?
Captain Alex Hunter
.” Familiarity momentarily crossed the captain’s features, his eyes going from Alex to Aimee, before closing down.

“You know me.” Alex stepped closer to the man. He could sense that Yang knew both him
and
Aimee. He was holding something back from them.

Yang smirked, but turned to speak softly to his men, and then they each pulled the rounded explosives from their pouches and walked forward to drop them into Alex’s hand. The same for the walkie talkies. Alex quickly checked the grenades and then slid them all into his own pockets and pouches. He looked at the three walkie talkies.

“Hiyunton Model H280s. They’ll do.” Alex turned to give one to Aimee. He gave one back to Yang, and kept the other himself. “Now, we’re all one big happy connected family.”

Yang took the single device, his expression implacable. Alex stared back hard for a moment. “Good choice.” He turned away. “Everyone, fall in.”

The HAWCs and McMurdo soldiers approached. Alex looked over their heads and pointed at Yang, also to Soong and Shenjung. “You too. This affects us all.”

The group crowded around. There was a sense of relief and optimistic anticipation, probably just because of his arrival. At this point Alex knew it was probably misplaced.

“Equipment and weapons check. What have we got left?”

The soldiers checked pockets and pouches. Yang and his team stood waiting.

Casey spoke first. “Got a flashlight, and one small Ka-bar.” She turned to stab a finger at Yang. “The rest is fucking piled out in the clearing where these guys stripped it from us.” She glared.

“Same,” said Rinofsky, then Blake.

“Nothing left,” said Ben Jackson and Jennifer Hartigan. Aimee also shook her head. Cate had a knife, a small flashlight and some water.

“Worse than I thought.” Alex looked to Yang’s weapon pile. “You’ve got a handgun and two rifles. Keep the handgun, but hand over the rifles.”

Yang’s eyes bulged. “You leave us with nothing.”

“You have a handgun, knives, and your experience. Now, pick up your weapons; we will all need to fight before this day is done.”

Cursing, the Chinese soldiers snatched up their knives. Alex turned away. “Franks, Rinofsky, take the rest.”

His two HAWCs eagerly grabbed the Chinese weapons and then checked them.

“Okay, me, I’ve got knives, a signal locator, and now, grenades.” He tossed one of the grenades to Casey, and the signal locator to Rhino. “We have flashlights, which is good, but we’ll need to conserve battery life. We don’t have food and water, but if need be we can find that in a jungle … if we have to go back outside.” He motioned to the rifles. “But, this is not enough to survive down here for long.”

“Boss.” Rhino shook his head, his face lit by the small screen of the locator. “Just fired this thing up. That signal is right around here.” He looked up. “I mean, it’s here;
right in here,
somewhere.”

Alex nodded, looking around. “And there’s something else in here. I don’t think we’re alone. That creature was either scared of, or called off by, something or someone.”

Silence stretched as the group looked around in the dark cave-like tunnel. Every crack or corner now took on more menace.

Alex held up a hand, raising his voice only slightly. “Listen, right now, we have some urgent priorities if we’re to survive. Two scouting teams. Jackson, Rhino, Yang are team one. Blake, take the two PLA soldiers. Scout ahead, see what we’ve got coming up. Keep your eyes open.”  He turned. “Franks, on rear guard. The rest, gather your strength before we follow them in.”

Alex edged to the corner and looked back to the entrance. The blue glow had returned, and the creature was gone – for now.

Aimee lifted her flashlight to examine their surroundings, joining the other small glowing circles that danced around within the tunnel. The tiles beneath her feet were worn, but at the edges were hints of the original colors. Blue, green, and flashing reflective mica sparkled in their flashlights. The walls had magnificent carved frescoes leaning out at them with smiling, leering, and tongue-lolling faces in the broad style Aimee recognized too well. Above her, corbelled archways of fierce creatures interspaced with large oval stone heads with benevolent stares watched over them.

She let her beam momentarily trail towards Alex, before quickly moving it away. But her eyes remained.

The man made anger burn inside her. After all these years, the first thing he did was to scold her?
How dare he!
She bristled the more she dwelled on it. She continued to watch him. Her head held onto the indignation, but in her core, there was still a feeling of attraction and familiarity that was as intoxicating as it had ever been. She wanted to scream at him, curse him, and make him say sorry for lying to her, and all that sat uneasily beside a deep desire to rekindle something she had only felt in her dreams for many years. She pushed her thoughts away and focused on the tiles.

“This is unbelievable.”

“
Jesus
.” Aimee jerked her light around, directly onto the woman’s face.

The woman squinted, smiled, and held out her hand. “Hi, Cate Canning,
Dr. Cate Canning
, evolutionary biologist and team leader on Project Ellsworth. It’s,
ah
, a government funded study of the buried lake.” She pointed at the ceiling. “From somewhere wa-
aay
up there. I hitched a ride …” She half smiled, shrugging. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Dr. Aimee Weir, petrobiologist and suicidal fool.” She shook Cate’s hand. “Still think it was a good idea?”

“Ask me again, when we’re topside,” Cate said, panning her light over the flooring, and then raising it higher. She turned to smile again at Aimee. “
If
 … I mean,
if
we get out.”

“We’ll get out,” Aimee projected more confidence than she felt.

Cate turned her light towards Alex, who noticed them looking and nodded. “Well, if anyone can get us out, it’ll be that guy.” Her eyes slid to Aimee. “Saw you watching him before. You should see him with his shirt off.”

Aimee turned a little too quickly. “What?”

Cate momentarily pulled back at Aimee’s reaction, and Aimee immediately regretted it.

“
Uh oh
, you two know each other, huh?”

“No, yes, forget it … long time ago.” Aimee waved it away.

“Good.” Cate’s eyebrows flicked up momentarily and she grinned.

Aimee sighed, feeling a twinge of something inside that she hated.
You are not jealous
, she told herself.

Cate wandered further into the dark tunnel and Aimee followed her. “Amazing,” Cate said, her light moving up and down. “Just, damned, amazing.”

Aimee knew what she was experiencing; she had felt the same sense of wonder when they first found the buried city. And here, even after countless centuries, the architecture was still striking. Interspaced Doric columns and large trapezoidal stones fitted together without a hair’s breadth between them. Vestiges of color clung to some of the images, and even the mosses and mineralized waters now staining them in all manner of rainbow hues couldn’t fully mask their magnificence.

“It’s just like Tikal, the Mayan temple ruins … and just as old, I’d say.” Cate turned. “I’ve been there. It’s called the Temple of the Two Headed Snake, built by King Yaxkin Caan Chac in 470AD.”

“No, it’s older than that,” said Aimee. “Much, much older. This place was a memory before Tikal was even a dream.” She turned to find Alex coming up behind them, and she pointed to the carvings. “Just like Aztlan.”

He nodded. “So, maybe some of them did make it down here after all,” Alex said softly. “We always wondered.”

“Aztlan? What the hell is Aztlan?” Cate asked, stepping in closer to the pair.

“Something much older than the Mayans,” Aimee said, shining her light onto the glyphic images. “These guys predated the Aztecs, Egyptians, Mayans, and even the Sumerians, by thousands of years. In fact, as they were originally a seafaring people, they may have created those other races, seeded them.”

“Buried beneath the Antarctic ice?” Cate scoffed. “I know what you’re inferring … Aztlan, is Atlantis, right?” She looked at Aimee from under her brows. “Please tell me you’re not really saying that?”

“I’m not,” Aimee said. “This down here is nothing like Atlantis. This is just the remnants of that. It’s real name is –
was
– Aztlan, and that great city, perhaps the first great city on the planet, is above us, buried just under snow and ice. A civilization that flourished when this continent was mostly ice-free.” She walked to the wall, placing a hand on one of the moss-covered images. “When the final ice age took hold, many escaped, perhaps becoming one or all the world’s first great races. But others stayed behind, and became trapped in the dark. Some obviously came down here, and …”  She shrugged. “And then, I don’t know.”

Aimee moved her light to the next image. It was of a coiling mass, with a huge eye at its center. “But I can guess.”

*

“Yo, boss.” Rhino led Jackson and Yang back to the group.

Alex noticed that Shenjung and Soong didn’t move to welcome Yang, but stayed with Cate and Jennifer Hartigan, who talked quietly with Casey Franks.

“What’ve you got?” he asked when they stopped before him.

“Multiple caves, and more. This place is enormous – buildings, rooms, a freaking city. Or what’s left of it.” Rhino stopped, the equally huge Jackson beside him. “Something bad happened here, maybe an earthquake – a lot of damage. Seems long deserted, but …”  He shrugged. “You kinda get the feeling, that,
I dunno
, there’s someone still here.”

“Impossible,” Cate said.

“More like, improbable,” Aimee said. “These guys were born survivors.”

“Well, we found more of the weird markings on the walls that we saw in the upper caves.”  Rhino pointed at one of the ancient carvings of a warrior. “Not like these, they were more recent, but they were rougher, crude, like they were done by someone a lot less skilled. Like what Hagel said he found with a bunch of skeletons in a dead-end cave that was higher up. He said it was as if they were trying to tunnel towards the surface. They never made it.”

“They went in both directions,” Alex said. “Some tried for the light, maybe others for the eternal twilight of this place.”

“Well, down here worked out well, didn’t it?” Casey said, joining them.

“It did for a while,” Aimee said. “About 12,000 years ago, when the land iced-over and trapped them, enough of them came down to be able to create all this.” Aimee waved an arm around. “They re-established, but then something happened, and their civilization collapsed.”  She looked towards the mouth of the cave. “No sunlight, and no hope with that thing out there.”

“Why didn’t they just head back up?” Jackson asked.

“Because this would be preferable,” Cate said. “They make it to the surface, and all they’re going to find is a frozen desert. Imagine what they would have thought of that blinding white and freezing world after thousands of years in the warmth and dark? They’d see it as hell.”

“Yeah, well, with that thing down here, I’d take that over this place any day.” Rhino frowned. “But Aimee’s right; these guys must have survived just fine for a while. Before slipping back or something.”

“Slipping back to the stone age,” Cate said. “There is something called the Olduvai theory. It postulates civilization always sliding backwards, regressing after a certain period.” She shrugged. “It’s inevitable – war, disease, natural disaster, using up resources, all can lead to great powers simply collapsing, fragmenting, and the people scattering, leaving the great cities deserted or in ruins. Like this place.” She looked around. “And I can tell you, as an evolutionary biologist, 12,000 years is about 50,000 generations – more than enough time to force adaptations …
evolutionary adaptations
.” She smiled. “Maybe they flourished, again, but didn’t need the things that the first arrivals did.”

Rhino raised his eyebrows. “Like what, no roof over their heads?”

“Seriously?” Cate gave him a look. “Look up, soldier. Here, everywhere you go, there’s a roof over your head.”

Jackson sniggered. “
Boom
. She wins that round, big fella.”

Rhino grinned. “Well, let’s see what …”

“That’s enough, Rinofsky,” Alex said. “Any other observations?” He looked from Rhino to Jackson, and then to Yang, who stood brooding a few paces back.

“Well, yeah, you couldn’t help feeling that someone was there … just out of sight,” Jackson said. “Spooky.”

“We were being watched.” Yang lifted his head and Rhino nodded. “I could feel it.”

Alex looked at the men, knowing they were probably right – he felt it himself. He could sense there was more in the tunnels than lichen-covered statues. Even now, he could feel that somewhere in the dark, there were eyes upon them.

“We need to move.” He turned slowly, trying to see into every crevice and dark corner. “Being in here is no guarantee of our safety.”

“Got that right,” Rhino said. “We lost Parcellis in a freaking crack in the wall, no bigger than …” He stopped when he saw Alex’s expression.

“We all know what we’re up against.” Alex looked to the group who were now all watching him. “We need to fully investigate this place. If there’s a way out, we need to find it …”  He looked hard at Yang. “And, we need to find
our
submarine.”

“A way out? Yeah, works for me,” Jackson said.

There was no bioluminescence in the tunnels, and without the flashlights, the darkness would have been absolute. Alex turned slowly, concentrating. The silence was so thick, it was as if it was suspended in the humidity. But there was something … he sensed activity, or furtive movement all around them. He turned back to Rhino.

“Where’s Blake? He should have been back by now.”

Rhino frowned. “Yeah, damned right. He was ahead of us … should have been back first.”

Yang bullocked his way past the taller Jackson. “And where are my men?”

“How would we know?” Rhino put his hand on the Chinese captain’s chest.

Yang knocked it away, and glowered at Alex. “So, I agree for you to lead, and we immediately lose people. This is leadership, American style?”

“Get a load of this guy, would ya?” Rhino shook his head.

“That’s enough,” Alex said. He turned to Yang. “Listen, our man is missing as well. I get the feeling this place is huge, but we’ll find them. Probably just exploring further than they expected.”

“Or my men are dead; killed by one of your assassins.” Yang’s features were set hard.

Rhino chuckled. “Assassin? Blake’s gonna love that one.” He leaned over Yang, putting a large, blunt finger in his chest. “Then where’s our
assassin
; why hasn’t he returned either?”

“Hiding,” Yang said, turning to stand square on to Rhino.

“Someone cracking under pressure are they?” Casey muscled in, getting between Yang and Rhino.

“Lighten up,
all of you
.” Alex pulled them apart. “We’re all wire-tight right now. But we’ve got to stick together.” He stared hard in the direction the men had disappeared, straining to hear or get a sense of them. His neck tingled from a feeling of imminent danger that refused to materialize. “We stay alive, find the sub. But first … we look for our missing men. Everyone stay close,” he said, looking towards Jennifer and the two Chinese scientists. “Rhino, you and I will take point, Jackson, at rear.” He looked at Casey, and then nodded at Yang. She understood immediately, and got close to him.

Alex waved them on. “Let’s go.”

“I’m also at front,” Aimee said quickly.

“So am I,” said Cate, pushing past the others.

“Hey?” Casey grabbed for her, but Alex waved her back. He wanted Franks on Yang. He had a feeling that taking orders from an American hadn’t been in the man’s job description. And if he got a chance, he might take the opportunity to rebalance the power dynamics by putting a bullet in the back of Alex’s head.